The latest issue of Game Informer has a 12 page preview of GTA Online, coming as a separate product launch on October 1st. The preview covers the online experience from when your character first arrives in Los Santos up until you have a full crew running some of the biggest missions. Here are some of the details:

GTA Online has been in the works since GTA 3. Eventually GTA Online will be expanded to include previous worlds and future worlds.

The game will support up to 16 concurrent players

Right now GTA Online takes place before the events of GTA V so you will run into those protagonists.

Your online character will take a 4th slot on your character selection wheel

You will choose his (or her) parents and grandparents and this will decide their looks

These skills and lifestyle start out small but can be upgraded later along with haircuts, clothes, and tattoos

The players in your world can be auto-populated with your friends, your crew, and similarly ranked players, or each player can be hand picked. You can also play in "passive mode" where players can't kill you, but you become hostile when you fire your weapon. Matchmaking will keep crews together and they can challenge other crews.

You can accept race invites from your phone to warp to the location, instead of waiting in a lobby. For some missions, a lobby window does open up so the crew leader can customize the time of day, weather, degree of difficulty, and the number of lives the crew has to complete the mission.

Each player will select their role for the mission and receive specific instructions for that role. If they die, they can respawn but it will count against their crew's lives.

Crews will plan missions at a hangout location, and will procure weapons and vehicles before starting.

While a friend or crew mate is driving, you can change the radio station and set markers on the map.

During missions, your crew can hire 3rd parties like a biker gang or security company to help out.

After each mission, you receive Reputation Points and a cash reward. You will have an individual rank and a crew ranking.

The crew leader decides how the money is split after a mission or heist. If it's not divided fairly, players can kill each other to take the cash. The cash is safe from other players if it is deposited into an ATM. Purchases made will be debited from the bank account.

Cash is used to buy upgrades to your character's appearance as well as customizable weapons, vehicles, and housing. If someone in your crew owns some luxury real estate, the crew unlocks the ability to meet there and plan for a high stakes mission.

Each home comes with a garage to store customized vehicles, with more space depending on the house, up to 10 vehicles.

You can invite friends and crew members over to have a drink, call strippers, enjoy the view, and watch the Rockstar parody TV shows together. If one of your crew members is in a high speed chase, they will appear on Weazel News on the TV.

Rockstar plans to continue creating new content for GTA Online and support it as a separate product from GTA V.

There will be a dedicated team to help with the stress testing in the first few weeks.

Player created race and deathmatch modes will be available at launch, with more complex mission creators coming later.

You need to access a certain rank before you can create (but it only takes 1 hour of play).